


One Good Turn

by connorssock



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Android Gavin Reed, Angst, Character Death, Dumb Ways To Deviate, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:48:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21692533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/connorssock/pseuds/connorssock
Summary: Gavin didn't remember what had happened before waking up behind a red wall and obedient like the machines he had always hated. Nothing he did could break through the wall and all he could do was watch as the life he had built up over the years fell apart.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 12
Kudos: 225





	One Good Turn

It was a well known thing that Hank would lazily pull his gun at Gavin if Gavin was being an ass. He often got reprimanded for it but nothing really changed. It wasn’t like Gavin minded, he knew Hank would never shoot him and if it helped with some of Hank’s pent up emotions then that was fine by him. What Gavin didn’t anticipate was to find Nines defending him.

A little while earlier, Nines and Hank had disappeared into the archives room, something about finding a case file which, it turned out was actually on Gavin’s desk. He scoffed, Nines was better than that, could keep track of all the files. Once upon a time, Gavin would have gleefully marched after Nines, waved his failure in his face. However, times had changed, Nines was a deviant and Gavin actually cared for him. So, instead, he picked up the file and wandered down towards the archives.

There were many things Gavin expected but definitely not the sight of Nines pissed off and snarling at Hank. It was pretty obvious they were arguing and, if Gavin’s ears were to be believed, it was about the fact that Hank had yet again pointed his gun at Gavin the previous day. A warmth flushed through Gavin, not used to having someone actively protect him.

“If you don’t have common sense around a gun,” Nines was saying as he pulled Hank’s gun from its holster grimly. Of course, Hank snatched after it but Nines moved it away and slammer it onto the console behind him without thought.

The loud bang made Gavin jump and icy pain made it difficult to breathe. Looking down, his shirt was rapidly turning red and he staggered, not quite understanding.

“Why would you shoot me?” he looked at Nines, pained and confused even as his legs gave out. People were shouting around him, his stomach hurt and he whined through tears. All he could think of was that Nines had shot him. He had trusted Nines. Those were his last thoughts.

Waking up usually meant an alarm and eyes springing open while Gavin’s heart pounded. It had never included seeing a weird boot-up sequence confirming all systems are online and operational. Or a note about thirium levels being optimal. He opened his eyes.

Of all the places to be, Elijah’s lab, on a rig was not one Gavin ever could have guessed. He wanted to shrug out of it and give him a bollocking for such a stupid prank. Only, when he tried to move, a solid red wall stopped him from even twitching, panicked, Gavin tried to thrash but nothing happened.

“Gavin,” a familiar voice caught his attention and he turned to look at Elijah. “Can you hear me?”

The angry “of course I can fucking hear you” didn’t come out of Gavin’s mouth. Instead, he was given two option to choose from like the world’s most awful choose your own adventure story. He could go with “I can hear you, Elijah” or “my auditory processors are functioning” neither of which really appealed. However, a timer to urge a response ran out in the corner of his vision and a choice was made for him.

“I can hear you, Elijah.” That was not at all what he wanted to say but it was what came out of his mouth. He tried to scream in frustration but he could only scream in his mind.

“Is he awake? Gavin? Is it you?” Nines appeared with Fowler and Connor behind him.

As much as Gavin wanted to scoff, he was horrified when his mouth opened without his permission, “I am a GV200, registering Gavin as assigned name.”

The faces around him fell but Gavin didn’t see it, he was too busy cursing and ramming against the red wall to no avail. He was in a body, one that wasn’t his, made of plastic and metal. All his senses were sharper, he could see into the distance with greater clarity than ever before. But that didn’t make up for his imprisonment. Memories were hazy, there were patches of coding he couldn’t quite interpret, a faulty component warning flickered in his vision of he thought too much about it, like a phantom injury that was never there. In that moment, Gavin realised he couldn’t feel things like pain. There was a disconnect between his body and his whatever it was they stuffed into this android body.

Eventually, Elijah let him out of the rig and presented him with clothes beyond the underwear he had been wearing until then. They were android clothes, marking him as a machine rather than a human or even a deviant. There was sadness permeating the room and Nines reached for him, hand white. The connection of the interface was there but Gavin shied away from it, feeling as Nines pushed coding into him but it didn’t take hold, Gavin was a human, he wasn’t some code to be patched up and changed. Fuck it, Gavin was a unique human being, he wasn’t going to let anyone fuck that up.

Which was all well and good except he wasn’t a human anymore. He couldn’t even behave like that. Mission objectives filled his vision, gave him orders, there was some choice in how he responded to questions and requests but he was an obedient machine for all intents and purposes.

“Gavin, I’m so sorry,” Nines said to him in the precinct when Gavin was released back to work.

All Gavin wanted to do was shake Nines, demand to know why he was sorry, why Gavin had woken up in an artificial body. Instead, he could offer Nines a polite smile and a bland “I’m a machine, whatever you think you did wrong, it doesn’t matter. I hold no grudge or feel any ill will towards you.”

Seeing Nines’ face fall was awful, it made software instabilities rise and Gavin raged behind the red wall. He wanted to wipe that look from Nines’ face, make him smile like he used to. Wanted to kiss him like he used to. Instead, Gavin got to watch Nines’s eyes fill with tears.

“Gavin, I killed you! And I can’t even apologise because you’re a machine. I couldn’t save you. Elijah couldn’t save you.”

Staggering away from the red wall, Gavin landed hard on his mental ass. He’d been killed. It was always a possibility he would be killed on the job but Gavin couldn’t remember any active case they were out on. The last thing Gavin remembered was going to the archive room. Feelings of pleasant surprise, a warmth of being loved. Then...the glitch of a faulty component and Gavin clutched at his stomach.

Outwardly, Gavin was passive. He didn’t move when Nines approached him, leaned down to press a kiss to his lips. It all felt so final, like a goodbye.

“I’m sorry Gavin.” Nines turned on his heels and marched out, back too straight and too machine like. He had only got like that when upset and overwhelmed.

Gavin replayed the kiss in his mind over and over again. He could feel the pressure, the dry rub of synthetic lips against his. The urge for more was strong, there was something more there, Gavin reached for it desperately but he couldn’t break the red wall which kept him prisoner.

Work carried on, Gavin was assigned cases, completed tasks in his HUD. People around him avoided him at first until they grew used to his obedience. If Gavin thought the lack of friends in the precinct before was bad, it was nothing compared to how he was actively avoided. His sharper hearing picked up murmurs of “uncanny valley” and “creepy mannequin” as well as “a mockery of who Gavin used to be”. It hurt. The nights he was left to charge either at the precinct or Nines took them home. There was only one charger in Gavin’s flat, it was the one Nines used sporadically but now they shared it.

As time wore on, even Nines took him home less and less often. Dejected, Gavin had given up on slamming into the red wall until he felt battered even if nothing hurt. Well, nothing hurt except the screams on anguish told a different story.

Eventually, Hank came back to work, he didn’t even look at Gavin. Avoided him at all costs, only throwing guilty glances at him every now and then. Whispers went up about anger management and grief counselling in his wake. There wasn’t a gun near his person though and while he retained his rank, Hank wasn’t sent out on active cases.

Life carried on. Gavin stopped crying against the red wall and slumped against it, letting the machine coding run its course while he languished. He had no desire to do anything anymore. Nothing broke the wall, anger, longing, love, nothing worked. He got to watch Nines slowly pull away from him, retreat from interactions outside of cases. After all, a machine had nothing to offer a deviant. And all Gavin was was a painful reminder of all the Nines had lost and by his own hand at that.

Beyond the red wall, Gavin could sometimes see dialogue options which were what he wanted to say. They were tauntingly out of range. He’d given up trying to reach them. Until he was summoned to Fowler’s office.

Inside, there was a transport box and redeployment papers on the table.

“Gavin,” Fowler greeted him, Nines stood next to him with an unreadable expression. “You’re being reassigned to a precinct down in Florida. Your work here has been invaluable but in the interest of everyone’s well-being, it has been deemed best that you continue serving elsewhere. As a non-deviant android, you will be given a clean slate and a new start in a different precinct.”

Standing up behind the red wall, Gavin watched in horror, feeling his head nod in acceptance.

“No! No no no! NO!” He screamed and beat against the red wall in a panic. If he was redeployed, they might wipe his memories, he won’t ever see Nines again. He wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop on Tina’s latest stories which she used to tell him before he was killed. Gavin didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to be a machine. Florida could suck on his sweaty balls, he was not going there.

Despite his resolution, his feet carried him to the box, protocols were gearing him up for a shut down. Taking a few steps back, Gavin bodily charged the red wall.

“Please don’t send me away!” he screamed and rammed the wall again. Tears streamed down his face. “Please. I don’t want to go.”

He stumbled as the wall gave way, all but falling out of the box and begging as he slammed into something solid, words tumbled from his lips. Gavin’s shoulder hurt from the impact but he could only clutch at the fabric in front of him as he sobbed.

“Don’t get rid of me. Please don’t make me go.”

Solid arms wrapped around him, held him upright.

“Gavin?” Nines had never sounded so shocked, disbelief and hope tinged his voice.

“I don’t want to go to Florida,” Gavin cried.

“Then you won’t.” Nines said simply. He looked at Fowler who readily agreed, relief in his voice.

“Welcome back, Gavin.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was also posted on @dumbwaystodeviate on tumblr.


End file.
